Redeemer East Side Update

In his autobiographical work, Palm Sunday, the modern novelist Kurt Vonnegut made this plea to an entire generation that never fails to move me:

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”

Modern city life is characterized by unprecedented individual freedom and mobility. Yet what we are discovering is that individual autonomy comes with a terrible price. To free oneself of all entanglements and obligations is to cut oneself loose from the very bonds that create communities of love. To be absolutely free, we are beginning to realize, is to be absolutely alone.

Yet, it truly would be a daring thing to commit oneself to creating stable communities. After all, this would require you to choose love over freedom, commitment over comfort, self-giving over self-fulfillment. It would require you to cultivate relationships not merely of compatibility, but relationships of accountability. It would be both radically subversive and powerfully attractive to our world.

So, one of the most daring things you can do in the New Year is to help us create stable communities here at Redeemer East Side. Join a Community Group today! These groups are at the forefront of how we seek to nurture communities of self-giving love. But don’t join a Community Group primarily to “get something out of” them. Instead, join them because you want to “put something in” — to help create the kind of community that offers the love of God to others.

So join us today! We need you!

Warmly,

Rev. Abraham Cho
East Side Senior Pastor

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